


So why can't you stay just long enough to explain?

by fckndonut



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, F/F, Other, high school enemies au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-07
Updated: 2015-06-07
Packaged: 2018-04-03 09:14:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4095346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fckndonut/pseuds/fckndonut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carmilla High School Enemies AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	So why can't you stay just long enough to explain?

Carmilla scans her eyes over the vaguely familiar bus station of her hometown as she gets off of the coach. It’s packed with people as it always is at this time of year; people arriving home after being away for Christmas, families going on weekends away before school starts again and students with too many bags being waved off or dragged by parents towards coaches. Carmilla pushes her way through the crowd of manic people wrapped around the back of the bus trying to collect their bags and finds her two big black duffels thrown carelessly into a heap on the ground. She is definitely not looking forward to washing the six months worth of clothes inside of them.

After escaping the sea of people and finding an empty bench to dump her bags on, she looks around for her brother Will. He had promised to pick her up on the phone last week. She pulls out her phone to check for messages and finds three; One from Danny and two from Will. She opens Will’s first;

 **Will Karnstein**  
Today 13:45

_**sorry kitty, forgot i had plans with the bros. can u get home urself? keys under the mat.** _  
_**i’m really sorry, i’ll be home in the morning and i’ll make it up to u, kay? :)** _

She sighs, not angrily but just because she’s disappointed she can’t see him today. She would never admit it out loud but she had missed him while she was away. They had never got on when they were younger, but now that their mother was gone they seemed to get on really well. They really needed each other now that they were the only family each of them had. She types back a reply before opening Danny’s;

**_yeah it’s fine, i’ll see you tomorrow then._ **

 

 **Xena**  
Today 14:03

_**hey, you still coming over? we can’t have a welcome back party without the guest of honour! oh and elsie is already drunk, she’s gonna pass out soon so hurry your ass karnstein!** _

She laughs; of course they started her party without her. Could they even call it a party considering it was going to be just the three of them? Oh well, they started without her no matter what it is. Typical.

  
She locks her phone and puts it back into the pocket of her jeans. She had planned to go to Danny and Elsie’s after she had seen her brother but considering Will wasn’t going to be back at the house until tomorrow, there was really no point in going home to an empty house. She could just go straight to Danny and Elsie’s now and stay with them tonight. She probably would have ended up sleeping there anyway.

  
She picks up her bags, swings one over her shoulder and starts towards the doors that lead into the station. If she remembers right there is taxi’s that wait out front; she could jump in one of those straight there.

  
It had been 6 months since she’d last been here, been home and it certainly wasn’t easy to come back. After graduation she had left without a word to anybody but Will, Danny and Elsie; she couldn’t face staying here after everything that happened. But it was time, time to face what had happened and not run away from her problems. She was over it now. Well, maybe if she keeps telling herself that it will eventually be true.

  
The cold, icy air hits Carmilla in the face when she reaches the exit. She forgot how cold it could get here; it would take getting used to again. She shivers and pulls her coat tighter around her body. There’s two taxis, she walks towards the first but somebody jumps in before she can get halfway to it. She jogs over to the next one, opens the door and stuffs her bags in before climbing in herself.

  
But Carmilla’s not the only one; somebody else had thrown themselves into the taxi at the opposite side. Carmilla glares at the back of their head and gets ready to give them a mouthful but when the intruder turns to face her, her breath catches and she can’t get a single word out.

  
Really? Out of everybody she used to know it had to be her that she saw today didn’t it?

  
It had to be Laura Hollis.

  
\--

  
Laura takes a minute to process the person sitting next to her. She looks at the very familiar face that has their mouth dropped open in surprise and then down at their hands which are clenching the handles of the two big duffels stuffed in between them both. Well shit, she certainly didn’t think she’d see that face ever again.  


  
The last time Laura had seen Carmilla Karnstein was at graduation six months ago when she had disappeared afterward. Nobody else had really questioned it and nobody had really noticed as it looked. But Laura had, though she doesn’t exactly know why considering the girl practically tortured her for 6 years. Obviously, it was her journalistic instincts. It couldn’t of been anything else after what she put her through...

  
“Hey, sorry…” Carmilla stumbles out, interrupting Laura’s thoughts. She notices that Carmilla doesn’t break her stare once, not even to blink “I didn’t see you there.”

  
Laura can’t help but notice the lack of the mocking nickname at the end of the girl’s sentence. That was new. And she doesn’t look like the Carmilla that Laura knew in school; she doesn’t look so dark or have that angry glare that used to be permanent on her face. Though she does still look just as mysterious, maybe even more. Laura knows she probably still is the big asshole she was six months ago though; angry glare or not, people don’t change that much and she did just steal her cab.

  
“Yeah, like I believe that” she says, sitting up straighter in her seat. Laura had never been one to stick up for herself to Carmilla but that’s something she regrets now. She wasn’t one of Carmilla’s mocking nicknames anymore; Not ‘cupcake’, not ‘sweetheart’. Her name was Laura.

  
“Wow... no need to be rude. I honestly didn’t. You must have seen me, you do know if you see someone getting in a taxi you don’t steal it, cupcake?” Carmilla replies with a tinge of annoyance in her voice and of course; there was the nickname. She was looking and sounding a lot more like the Carmilla that Laura knew now.

  
“Sir?” Laura asks the taxi driver who just looks at both of them before turning back around and picking up his newspaper. She huffs and turns back toward Carmilla who is looking at her with disdain. “I didn’t steal anything, you should have seen me! Also my name is Laura, not ‘cupcake.’” Laura was annoyed now, she just wanted to go home and finish her journalism project that was due in tomorrow.

  
“Wow you know what? Fine. I’ll get out” Carmilla says, with her infamous glare. She starts to grab her bags and open the door but Laura doesn’t want to let her win this so she too grabs her bags.

  
“No, I’ll get out! You can have it.” They both get out, slamming the doors behind them. They turn to face each other over the roof of the taxi and Laura shouts, “What now?”  


  
“You tell me, Sweetheart” Carmilla shouts back, her voice a lot calmer than her own.

  
Before Laura can even think though, the taxi pulls away. She throws her hands up and sighs. She was in the best mood, why did she have to appear all of a sudden and ruin it. She walks over onto the pavement beside Carmilla who has dropped her bags on the ground and is glaring at her just like she used to back in high school.

  
“That was stupid.” Carmilla says bitterly.

  
A surge of anger courses through Laura’s tiny body; seriously, why today?? “Yes. Yes it was. Why didn’t you just stay in the taxi? You... you stupid-head!” Laura blurts out but regrets it instantly. _stupid-head? how old was she? five?_

  
“Because I was already getting out!” Carmilla shouts back. “And did you really just call me a stupid-head, cupcake?” A hint of a smile lingers on Carmilla’s lips as she finishes her sentence.

  
Before Laura can embarrass herself anymore she just walks away. She always knew how to make the biggest fool of herself; no wonder Carmilla had teased her all through school.

  
There is a pause then she hears Carmilla sigh, “Bye then?” question clear in her voice.

  
Laura just keeps walking.

  
\--

  
“Oh my god, no way. Laura Hollis as in the girl who Danny was completely in love with for like two years during high school? That Laura Hollis?” Elsie barely gets out her words due to her laughter. The three are spread across the living room of Danny and Elsie’s shared apartment with takeout talking about Carmilla’s run in with the girl earlier. She couldn’t help but tell them; mostly due to the fact she knew it would make Danny cringe. And maybe also because it had put Carmilla in a really good mood which was weird but she guesses it’s just because how petty it was. Or something. Who knows?

  
“Yep, the one and only” Carmilla smiles at the memory of 6ft tall, fifteen year old Danny Lawrence who gushed over the 5ft, sickly sweet, over-achieving Laura Hollis. Laura had been in Danny’s English class and one time she had came out of class with the biggest smile plastered across her face because Laura had spoken to her. Both Carmilla and Elsie had laughed for the rest of the day about the image of the two as a couple struggling to do anything with the whole foot height difference.

  
“It was just a crush! I wasn’t in love with her” Danny’s face was a deep shade of red now and all the other girls could do was laugh. “Come on guys, I wasn’t!”

  
“Remember that Valentine’s Day when she made her those cupcakes with the Love Heart’s on top and she had written a card out _‘To Laura, i adumbledore you, love your secret admirer’_ on it” Elsie says, sending herself and Carmilla into an even bigger fit of giggles while Danny is sitting trying not to laugh at her own embarrassing memory.

  
“Hey! She actually liked that card! LaFontaine told me that she hung it on her wall.” Danny says. Carmilla isn’t surprised; Laura was a nerd for Harry Potter, cheesy pick-up lines and all that sort of stuff. She just shakes her head and laughs.

  
“You had the worst taste in girls back in high school, Lawrence” Carmilla tells her best friend.

  
“Wow, I am offended. Might I remind you Carmilla, YOU slept with me too?” Elsie says, knowing what Carmilla meant but taking the chance to remind her of their drunken hook up all those years ago.

  
“You know I meant before you. You have to admit she did until she started dating you.” Carmilla tells her, Elsie nods in agreement.

  
“Was I that hot I didn’t have to be a nerd, Danny?” Elsie looks over at her girlfriend smirking. It would seem that Carmilla would be a third wheel but the three girls have always been friends and they all shamelessly flirted with each other even when they weren’t dating so it didn’t really seem any different now that they were. As long as they don’t start making out in front of her, she’s cool with it.

  
“Shut up, you’re the biggest nerd I know,” Danny replies as she crawls over to Elsie and sits down next to her. “But it’s okay I still love you,” she leans in and presses a kiss to Elsie’s cheek which Elsie immediately wipes off in fake disgust.

  
“Gross” Elsie fake gags and Carmilla can’t help but laugh at the two; they have to be the weirdest couple she has ever met.

  
“So Fine maybe I did have a crush on Laura Hollis but come on, I wasn’t the only one” Danny says, turning to Carmilla with a wicked smile. Carmilla chokes on the food in her mouth and starts shaking her head in protest. “Yeah that’s right Karnstein; I didn’t forget the way you acted like a complete douche around her just to get her attention.”

  
“I did not have a crush on her” Carmilla objects. She hadn’t had a crush on Laura Hollis. No way. It wasn’t a crush. She didn’t have crushes. Especially not on tiny, little, over-excited, bubbly nerds like Laura Hollis. “I didn’t even like the girl.” she says before beginning to eat again.

  
Danny laughs louder and Elsie looks at her unconvinced “Sure, Jan.”

  
“Believe what you want but it wasn’t a crush,” she says, ignoring the laughs from her friends. If this had been anybody other than them she probably would have tried to murder them but she knew they were just messing around. Even if she had, had a crush on Laura Hollis they wouldn’t have known.

  
Not that she had. Of course not.

 

\--

 

Laura was exhausted by the time she got home to her apartment. She ended up taking the subway after all of the bother earlier today. When she had walked off after totally embarrassing herself in front of Carmilla she had walked the complete opposite direction from where she had to go, though she did not turn around to embarrass herself further. All she wanted to do was get into her pyjamas and watch Doctor Who. Screw the journalism project.

  
After settling down on the couch she decides she better phone Perry before she had an aneurysm due to worrying. Laura had texted Perry on her way home about the run in with Carmilla and had been pretty angry and upset about it, Perry had calmed her down over the phone and made sure Laura would call her later to make sure she got home okay. Perry is wary about every person who wears any more than one piece of black clothing so she was more than wary about Carmilla Karnstein. Now that Carmilla was back in town, Perry no doubt will be phoning her every night to make sure she was home safe.

  
The dial tone goes twice before Perry picks up with an anxious “Laura, hello?”

  
“Hey Perr” She can hear Perry sigh of relief after she talks.

  
“How are you feeling? Did you get home okay? You know she’s trouble Laura; You shouldn’t have spoken to her. You just have to walk away from situations like that, okay? I’ve always strongly disliked that girl, too much eyeliner and leather if you ask me.” Perry bombards her. She can’t help but laugh at her best friend; she was such a motherly figure to Laura and acted just as cautious as her dad had.

  
_Had_. She was still getting used to that word.

  
“I am fine Perry, I promise. I’m home now yes.” Laura replies, ignoring the sinking feeling in her chest at the thought of her dad.

  
Perry keeps talking but Laura zones out. She finally thought she was over the crying and zoning out due to the grief of her father’s death but clearly, she was wrong. A wave of loneliness hits her square in the chest and she can’t help but tear up knowing that she’s never going to see him again. Her apartment is huge, way too big for just her but it was the one she grew up in with her dad; she could never sell the place where she had the best memories with him.

  
She forgets she’s on the phone for a moment until Perry calls her name, concern clear in her voice.  
“Laura, sweetie? Are you alright?”

  
“Not really,” she pauses before asking “Do you guys mind if I stay over at yours tonight?” She tries to keep her voice steady but it doesn’t work and her voice cracks at the end of the question.

  
“Sure Sweetie, LaFontaine will come over and get you in the car. They will leave right away. I will make some brownies. Would you like me to stay on the phone?” Perry asks, the concern in her voice still clear but with a kinder, more caring tone.

  
“No it’s okay Perry, See you soon” Laura replies.

  
“See you soon Laura” Perry says before Laura hangs up her phone and sighs. She hates barging in on LaF and Perry’s nights together but she really can’t stay in her apartment tonight. Being here alone with her thoughts is the worst thing she could attempt to do, it never ends well.

  
She stands up and wipes her tear-stained cheeks with her hand before going and packing a light bag to take to Perry’s. She wouldn’t need much considering she stayed over more than regularly and half of her things practically live over there so she only stuffs in a change of clothes and her laptop before sitting back down on the couch to wait for LaF to pick her up.

  
Laura wonders if the run in with Carmilla had something to do with the sudden breakdown after so long. She had been doing fine for a while now until today and Carmilla had always been one to upset her just by being her moody, mean self back in high school. Her dad had been the one she would talk to when Carmilla had teased her at school, He would be concerned as all parents would but he would always tell Laura that maybe there was a hidden reason behind why Carmilla acted the way she did. Laura never understood though and she certainly didn’t agree, she knew Carmilla was just an asshole.

**Author's Note:**

> come follow me on tumblr and ask me questions about the fic or just anything in general - cupcakecarm.tumblr.com  
> I am also on twitter, feel free to follow me there - bxther


End file.
